Newspapers around the state continue to criticize the Minnesota GOP’s decision to seek an amendment to the Minnesota Constitution barring same-sex marriage. Here’s a sampling:
Winona Daily News editorial board:
Thank the Republicans for making this a wedge issue when all eyes have been on the budget.
It also allows legislators to turn the incredibly charged issue over to the voters without having to reveal their own thinly cloaked bigotry.
The message the GOP is sending gays and lesbians could not be clearer.
We like you (or are at least forced to say that for the cameras) – just not as much as straight people.
This new movement isn’t just legislation to define marriage.
It’s legislation to prove we’re bigoted.
This isn’t Minnesota nice – it’s Minnesota malicious.
The Minnesota Daily editorial board:
But this proposal in particular is more than just an ideological battle between progressives and conservatives — it’s bad business.
If passed, businesses that offer employees same-sex partner benefits would be unable to continue to do so. This is unfair and could mean that consumers will take their local shopping online to businesses that do offer these benefits. A similar thing happened when many pro-gay citizens boycotted Target for shelling out $150,000 to an organization that supported GOP gubernatorial candidate and gay-marriage opponent Tom Emmer.
For a party that claims to have businesses’ backs, Republicans are presenting a potentially detrimental move. While this was passed 8-4 on party lines by a Senate committee and is one step closer to showing up on the ballot in 2012, GOP lawmakers whose names will also be on the ballot should remember that oppressive and unfair actions like this will not be forgotten.
Is this the Minnesota we know and love?
Gay marriage bans, abortion restrictions, looser conceal-and-carry gun laws so we can blow someone away if they knock on our door unsolicited…is this Minnesota? Or, more specifically, is this the Minnesota that the new Republican majority in the state House and Senate really represents? We can nit-pick certainly and come up with an impressive list of things that are less than stellar in our state right now, things that could be improved, but gay marriage, abortion restrictions and gun laws don’t even make the top 100. When you get down to it, Minnesota has one problem that, by law, needs to be addressed now, and that’s the budget deficit. Onetime governor, Tim Pawlenty, used up all the gimmicks in order to erase previous deficits, so now something real must be done. Get to work, Republicans…you’re wasting our time.